I have had solar panels on my roof for more than ten years. I had them installed just before the price per unit paid back by the electricity supplier, in my case SSE, was reduced. The panels and the inverter have been trouble free and I have more than recouped the £10.5k cost and am now in profit.

When they were installed I had an old-fashioned electricity meter with a horizontally mounted spinning disc and, on a sunny day, the disc would spin backwards. It was amusing to watch! Now I have a smart meter and can see exactly what is happening. My power consumption is often at zero, or I might be feeding power back into the grid. That both reduces my electricity bill, and results in payments of several hundred pounds from SSE every year.

I don’t have batteries but a neighbour recently came to see my system and was considering a battery setup. I don’t know the pros and cons, but one would need to factor in the lifespan of batteries and cost of replacement, which would obviously have a hit on ROI, and the convenience (or otherwise) of physical storage.